Garden redesign - Do's and Don'ts

FrankGrimes

We finished renovating and extending our house a while back and are now getting around to getting the back garden done. I did most of the work on the house but don't have time to do much of the work on the garden so we'll get someone in to do the whole lot.

Garden Force Landscaping were recommended to me and seemed good when he came for initial briefing. He's coming back with a computer-designed plan on Monday based on rough briefing we gave him and his ideas. Any experiences with them or recommendations for others are much appreciated.

It's a small garden at the back of a 3-bed end of terrace which has been extended to the side. Roughly 10m x 5m with a shed in back left corner (I'll post more details later). Our current plan is to have a small deck outside patio doors on left side leading up to the shed, with patio in the far right corner (as the garden is NNW facing and that's where the sun catches in evening) with some brick raised flower beds in a few places and fencing covering the walls. We also like the idea of putting in scene lighting in a few places and having a water feature in somewhere.

It's too small to have grass, though I wonder is there artificial grass that might be interesting? Our main concern is we don't want it to look like a plain deck running into patio so an ideas on how to mix up the surfaces would be great.

I think we know broadly what we want, but I reckon people with experiences in this area might know a few Do's and Don'ts that we could benefit from, so I'd appreciate any suggestions, warnings, or ideas. Thanks.

Irish Gardener

A little checklist for the garden.

Creating a checklist is a great place to start when planning the garden. In your quieter moments have a think about how you use (or would like to use) your plot.

Garden use is it another room? : Do you want a patio, water feature? Do you want parties or just a place to relax?

Children’s play area :will this include tough grass, swings, sandpit and non-spikey plants?

Pets: do the pets need to be enclosed in the garden?

Disabled or elderly: do you need to include ramps instead of steps if there will be people with mobility restrictions using the garden? Will you need sensory or aromatic plants and raised beds?

Any difficult features to consider: such as slopes or rocks and will they need to be excavated?

Low maintenance or labour intensive: gravel beds, polythene, container-grown plants or open soil.

Views: Is there a view that needs to be screened such as an oil tank or even the neighbours house?

Themes: if the garden is large you might want to section it off and have different styles.

Are there any features that must stay such as telegraph poles, sheds or washing lines?

Budget :work out a budget for the work and give yourself a time scale. Do you want to do the work yourself or get in a contractor?

Planting to soften the hard landscaping: Do you want to attract wildlife into the garden?

Do you want to include fruit and vegetables?

Do you want year round interest or a burst of colour in summer?

Jot down your findings as they will come in useful when it comes to the planning.

Taken from an absolutely massive Irish gardeners forum post on the subject .... STEPS TO START A NEW GARDEN

ircoha

Make provision for some form of drainage for the rain water to run off if u 'seal up the whole area.
Also a north facing deck timber deck may/might get very slippy in the wet so a patio might be better than a deck outside the back door: this may/might get a bit slippy as well if not well drained but not as much as timber.

FrankGrimes

Thanks for the input. I checked out that gardenplans site and it had some great info.

That's a very valid point about decks being slippy in winter. I should have mentioned that the main garden access is through a door in the utility room and the patio doors at the deck would only be used in summer time. I'll defo ask him specific questions on plans for drainage though.

The landscaper came back with a pretty decent design. The Garden2.jpg image shows the change we made to the plan to have a circle patterned patio with a water feature with it in the central edge of the gravelled area instead of a square bit.

Other main change is we'll paint the garden wall instead of fence it to reduce costs and we were thinking it would be too much timber anyway.

It's a private access lane to the back so we need to build in a door for access to that.

Interested to hear thoughts on the proposed design, we're thinking of going with it.

Sonnenblumen

Some observations:
-deck is in the most shaded part of site and most likely to be a damp area
- the proportion of pebble/stepping stones appears greater than patio, if you are to get any real use out of patio, would/should this not be a greater area?
- patios to be any way useful for sitting out/dining etc should be at least 3.0m but ideally 4.0m on the shortest dimension
- would be better to reduce pebble on rear access also not clear from drawing as to how this is proposed to be done
- position water feature so that it can be enjoyed from patio area but also from house and consider lighting for visual interest at night and during winter months
- reclaimed bricks are expensive and why not use new bricks (concrete cheaper than clay) as capping. Alternatively the paving stone can be used eg 600x300 slab or cut accordingly. A good landscaper should be able to cut slabs to cap any curve wall profile.
- a good guide is to restrict too many diverse materials in garden, better to use different versions of the same material and within the same colour range. Contrast on the otherhand is for effect but should not dominate overall appearance. Subtle v Brash
-cladding wall is a super finish and not that expensive
- Whats your budget for such a project?

Minder

FrankGrimes wrote: »

I'll defo ask him specific questions on plans for drainage though.

DEFRA in the UK are proposing changes to the specification to patios and hard landscaping to prevent runoff. Google their website - there may be helpful information re an appropriate spec for patios. It could be cheaper than surface water drainage or band drains.

Curious as to why you need such a large shed? Gardening equipment will be minimal with the redesign, if you need somewhere to store a bike a smaller structure may be better. Otherwise I would flip the bottom half of the garden so that the wooden deck leads to the sandstone patio - that way the decks wouldn't be shaded by the shed.

FrankGrimes

Some great points raised - plenty of food for thought, thanks.

Shed: is an existing shed I needed to house all my tools during the renovation/extension. It will be used for woodworking and I have a boxing machine in there so I need the space.

The point on patio size is good - we'll change that a bit, and I'll get more specifics on the rear access as gravel isn't a great option (though it will be used once in a blue moon). Likewise we'll push the water feature more into the middle so that we can see it from the kitchen and ensure it is lit up.

"Cladding wall is a super finish" - not sure what you mean by cladding - do you have any examples I could look into?

Budget is €6.5k including rebuild of the back wall (falling apart) and addition of the rear access doorway. Budget includes €800 for flowers/plants and €500 for lights.

Sonnenblumen

There are key aspects to all projects:
-Design
-Functionality and
-Cost

I would conclude that the design as proposed is flawed, the functionality is also questionable and given these shortcomings, the proposed expenditures of € 6.5k is poor value and will if the fundamental flaws are not corrected will prove a very expensive project.

You appear impressed by the garden graphic but as others have pointed out, there are some pertinent Q's to be answered. This thread has been a very useful learning example to illustrate the point a pretty picture is not the same as a good design.

In your case there is clearly poor use of space, and choice of materials also
raises more Q's. Planting accounts for < 15% of proposed project spend, that would really alarm me. I mean if you paved everywhere you would have change from € 3k, so why are you getting so little 'green' inputs for over double that spend? You've also stated the area was too small for grass, I would also disagree and again with the right design this could be addressed.

I might post some pics on wall cladding but I would talk to your landscaper about the design and get it sorted before the problems are compounded by construction.

Pebble, deck, and stepping stones are relatively common examples of low grade landscaping inputs, so I'd be watchful on tougher aspects of the execution.

FrankGrimes

Hi Sonnenblumen, thanks for the feedback, some interesting points though I find some a little negative (e.g. beyond saying the design was decent I'm not sure what you had to go on to suggest it was the graphics that impressed me beyond the fact that they visualised a design which we saw as addressing most of what we instructed in our remit).

The feedback given here caused us to rethink and we're now going to go with grass in place of the pebbled area and have stepping stones to allow access to the shed when wet (the rear access is a non-issue as it will barely be used and is included mainly to say we have rear access when it eventually comes to selling). That should soften the look and give nice contrast for the patio.

You mention that 3k would pave the whole place - we certainly don't want to do that as it would look very cold. Rebuilding the wall and installing an external door in it runs to the best part of 1k, add €800 for plants, €500 for lights and €600 for reclaimed brick edging and flower beds (which we think are worth it after seeing them), and that's about €2700, leaving just under €4k to pave some, grass others, and deck another part, which doesn't compare too poorly to the €3k to pave the lot, unless I'm missing something. I may well be missing something but still have time to correct it if I am, so please do let me know.

The deck is one area where I concede it might be a mental leaning overruling the sensible option, but all through the hard work of the building I just had a notion of walking out the patio doors onto a small hardwood deck with the BBQ on it, so that attachment means it stays. It's also in an area that gets zero sunlight so I'm not sure what alternatives would be more attractive (am open to correction and would love to hear ideas)? Plan is for a flowerbed to sit on the deck with trellis possibly running up the side of the shed. Utility room door is main point of practical access to and from the garden.

Having gone to a few garden centres this weekend, I don't see how €800 on plants for this small garden won't be more than enough to allow for plenty of planting and a few potted plants/small trees dotted around the place?

As I said above, I really do appreciate the advice and would appreciate further thoughts, but I don't feel this is as doom and gloom as you make out as with the change to go with grass over pebbles, I fell the design is both nice and functional (with recognised weakness in having a north-facing deck for winter months) and the cost seems to be in the right ballpark.

Sonnenblumen

Frank,

A good designer will be wise to listen to clients when formulating project scope. A good designer will seek to exploit the site potential and if done imaginatively will certainly exceed clients expecations etc. A good designer would not make fundamental errors of judgement.

A number of posters have commented thus far myself included and it would be fair to say that the broad sentiment is negative. But if you're happy with the feedback and prepared to make changes well and good.

But the key question is glaringly obvious what might have been the results had you not had the benefit of feedback positive and/or negative.

Good luck with your efforts.

FrankGrimes

Thanks Sonnenblumen, we are glad to have the feedback and happy to make some changes off the back of it - main changes will be the inclusion of grass and increasing the size of the patio, we're still finalizing whether to go with new or reclaimed bricks (we actually have a lot of spare bricks from the build but they're not exactly attractive and can only be used on edge so would need large mortar joints on curved edging).

It seems the main point of disapproval that we're leaving in at the moment is the deck, though to be honest there hasn't been any real alternatives proposed. I'll be visiting Brooks in Sandyford tomorrow to have a look at some hardwood decking that might address some of the maintenance hassles.

We hired a landscaper, not a garden designer, as we felt at the end of the day it's a small garden at the back of an end of terrace and the way the sun comes in means positioning of the patio is a given and we wanted a deck in the other corner so it didn't need the likely further cost of a designer, though in hindsight maybe a designer would be worth it. That said, the access to the expertise on here is appreciated.

FrankGrimes

Just remembered to post back with some photos of how the garden turned out. We had it done back in May and we're quite happy with it as it's not a big garden but the different surfaces are well proportioned and it actually makes it feel bigger than we thought it would. And the timber fencing gives it a very soft and private feel (a surprising amount of privacy for an end of terrace) and the timber, paving, and bricks actually look lovely when wet, which let's face it is all too often.

I have to get the extension pebble-dashed and touch up spots on the back of the house and then finish the painting and it's all finished (reverse order I know but that's how things turned out).

Thanks again for the input.

TequilaMockingBird

Garden looks lovely Frank. I think the grass was a good amendment. How did the budget go in the end? Also, just a suggestion, a few interesting climbers around the decking area might be an nice idea, or even some potted bamboo or maple.